Media365
In Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga, Sargodha takes shape as a character of its own. By the end of the movie, when Nirvair wanders from one street to another, the city comes alive in Keenu’s mind. For the ailing protagonist, Sargodha was not just his place of residence but also the physical manifestation of the love he had for Afsana and the profound moments they spent together. While the city holds history for the character, it also mirrors him. For both a young Keenu and Sargodha exist only in the memory of the protagonist, and the idea he has of himself and of the city no longer exists. This is most likely why Imtiaz Ali chose 135-year-old Lal Kothi, which harbours memories of partition, to recreate Sargodha.
It was only a few months back that social media was abuzz by the accuracy of Aditya Dhar’s recreation of Pakistan’s Lyari in India. While the Dhurandhar team did the impeccable recreation using a set, Imtiaz Ali simply opted for a location that probably saw the plot of the film come alive much before the idea of the movie was seeded in the filmmaker’s mind. Speaking to Architectural Digest, Suman Roy Mahapatra, the production designer of Main Vaapas Aaunga, said, “The main criterion was that it had to be a haveli located close to a field, because of the script.” The haveli, called Lal Kothi simply because of its deep vermillion exterior, was also used to shoot one of the songs in Amar Singh Chamkila, and so was familiar property for the director and his team.
What is striking about the property is that it has stood in present-day Punjab’s Sangrur for the past 130 years. Mahapatra mentioned not making many changes to the location since it already had plenty of history. He told the publication, “It was almost the same, the owner told us the house had retained its pre-Partition colour, so we kept it as it was.”
The owner of the house, Harman Jaijee, told the publication that the house was built by her grandfather and was used as a refugee camp during the partition in 1947. Thus, the property lived the story that cinegoers merely watched on the big screen in Main Vaapas Aaunga, which is why it seemed such a natural as young Keenu’s ancestral home in the film.
